Scary Bird!

We acquired Jeffrey as a stray. Of course, by stray, it's important to note that he landed on my dad's head at a picnic. From that point on, he was my dad's bird. While the rest of us girls (my sisters and my mom) tried to get along with him, he HATED women. I have vivid memories of being chased up the stairs by this demon bird!

His upkeep was simple, and as I said my dad had to do much of it. He was a hardy bird, and never seemed to have any health issues. My dad was able to train him to do a few tricks, but had to keep him caged a lot of the time because he didn't like anyone else in the family.

Eventually, sadly, we had to give him up to my dad's coworker who was single, no kids. Jeffrey was much happier there and was more of what you would expect from a cockatiel: friendly, outgoing, eager to please. We strongly suspected that he had been abused, or had just had some bad experiences, with women or girls when he was younger and was lashing out on us in memory of whatever happened.

We couldn't help his situation, and while we weren't pleased to be attacked, I was glad that we rescued him and were able to give him a home he deserved (even if it wasn't with us). Cockatiels can be very sweet, caring birds in the right environment.